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Beschreibung

Hi! My name is Rex. I live on a private island off the coast of Coron, Palawan, Philippines. My grandfather bought the place. Passed to my Mom. And now, I take care of it. It used to be a family vacation place but after a typhoon destroyed most of the facilities on the island. It’s been neglected after that. So, I decided to make a project out of it.

I moved here in 2017 from the city, originally to do organic farming. Later on, I realised that getting water to the island is not easy. I have to get some divers to lay out at a water line from my neighbouring island to here. Getting divers to build and maintain the water line is expensive in the long run. So, I decided to be a diver myself. I became a dive instructor on 2018 and decided to start off with a dive camp to fund for the projects.

- The idea is to make the island self-sustaining, making everything affordable. An Eco-camp

- And a dive camp. Specialising in dive training / skills catering to everyone even people who are too afraid of water. Without having to rush to finish the courses in a specific number of days with many other divers.

Currently, there is a caretaker (couple) with me whose job is to take care of the maintenance and cleanliness around the the island. They make sure we have enough water, collecting drums of water from the neighbouring island to be pumped to our island as we don’t have fresh water for washing / shower here. Making sure that there are no trespassers and fishermen fishing around the island as I don’t allow fishing here. With us is my partner who is working with the team. She is helping me around the dive camp taking in students as she is now also a dive instructor.

In total, it’s just 4 of us on the island. Plus 2 dogs (Megamouse and Unggoy) and a cat named Killer.

• No roosters on the island! So, we can sleep soundly.

• I don't have much references here but I do have a lot on other sites.

• We already started renovations on the island. It's slowly taking shape but it's getting there.

That’s some of the ideas I have for now. It’s been quite a challenge but then I love challenges. 🏴‍☠️

Arten von Arbeit

Kultureller Austausch und Lernmöglichkeiten

Volunteers will get to experience life on an isolated island. The resources here are very valuable as it’s very limited. I have some musical instruments on the island which I’m willing to share and teach. I’m a dive instructor by profession so I can also give out lessons.

Arbeit

Right now, we’re in need of volunteers who will help with the general maintenance of the island. Like painting, carpentry works and beach cleanup. Also, with promotion of the island thru social media networks. Basically, I’m just sharing the place to everyone so to help promote the place. Most of the work will go to beach clean up and sharing photos and comments on social media.

Gesprochene Sprachen

Tagalog, English

Unterkunft

As of the moment, our dorm rooms are being renovated. The rooms that I actually need help with. I have a four bedroom room.(four single beds) for the volunteers. Alternatively, pop-up tents on the beach. Complete with mattresses, pillows and sheets.

We have a kitchen volunteers can use. We can all go shopping together and share for food. Or buy your own. I won’t be able to provide food at the moment as we just buy for our consumption as well.

How to get to the island:

As you have already read, this is a private island. And there are no public transportation to get here. You will have to rent a boat from Coron Town. This is the expensive option but you will be seated comfortably. :)

The cheapest alternative is my with my boat. I can pick you up from Coron Town. You will just provide for the gasoline. However, I can only pick you up if the weather conditions are good. This is a more faster way to get to the island. :)

Was noch ...

We have our own beach, best snorkeling places and from time to time, baby blacktip sharks around the island.

Rex is a warm, bubbly, curious person. He will enjoy telling you jokes (lots of bullshit), doing magic tricks you won't understand and teaching you lots of things about the Philippines. His island is a little piece of paradise where time stands still :)
Thank you for this experience that I -won't forget!

Easily one of the highlights of our travels. Amazing people. rarely find people who are amazing and helpful like janika and rex.
Willing to share warmly everything what they have - even stories on the fire and delicious stockbread or cooking traditionally vegetarian Filipino dishes.
We fell in love with the environment - we felt like lost in… read more paradise.

Our tasks were helping washing the walls (;), painting and building.

It was hard for us to say goodbye and leave bayaca - the pirate island !

wish we would be there to see the puppies while listening to rex' ukulele sounds at sunset.

thank you so much for the experience and for going above and beyond.
hope to come back soon!

Are you looking for a place for digital detoxing? Switching off the stress button? Escaping the city and having a simple, happy lifestyle?
Well, welcome to Bayaca Island!

I spent two weeks at this wonderful, marvellous and magical place and had such an incredible time with Rex and Janika (and of course Megamouse, Unggoy and Killer ;)

Rex is a… read more very welcoming, easy-going, open-minded, tolerant, genuine and generous lad with a funny and positive, optimistic Peter Pan attitude.
He is really curious about everything, you can learn a lot from him (for example, how to fix broken boat engines with youtube-videos or playing the ukulele) and have interesting, deep conversations with him.
I tried diving on Bayaca island for the first time - liked it so much, that I also did my PADI-Open Water license!
Apart from that you can do kayaking and snorkelling around the island, watch the most beautiful sunrises/sunsets and just do whatever you wanna do.

Best of luck for your amazing project, mate! =)
Keep up the great work!

I'm looking forward to go back to the one and only pirate island! Arrrrrrr!

Let me start off by saying, Megane is the best French I've ever met! For sure, there are a lot more nice French people too.. ;) She is very proactive but easy going at the same time. Easy to get along with. Very sweet, friendly and helpful. Simply and awesome human being! Everybody loves her. A proper pirate! She is family now. ;)

I spend 10 amazing days on Rex island. This place is so nice and Rex and Janika are such great people I can say they are now friends for me.
They will make you feel like part of family.
Living on this small isolated island is such an unique opportunity. Everyday sunset is amazing and water are the best for diving and snorkeling.
Be ready for… read more living pirate life ;)
I really hope to come back again and see you guys !
Thank you again for hosting me, miss you already !

Staying with Rex and Janika has definitely been our best stop in the Philippines - and in our world trip so far! It’s hard to describe with words how well they treated us. From the very first moment we felt like being part of their family. The island is a real paradise with a very chilled vibe. You can see the sunrise from the rooftop or the hut,… read more and the sunset from the beach, probably one of the most wonderful views we’ve ever seen. The cultural exchange was great, we heard a lot of stories from Rex about how he’s trying to help the filipino community, and we even spoke some Spanish together! We enjoyed cooking together and sharing food - we are gonna miss your special dessert Rex!! The work was very relaxed and mainly involved some painting and cleaning. We even decided to get our PADI Open Water certification with Rex, probably our best decision! Rex is an amazing diving instructor, really skilled and fun at the same time. We totally recommend discovering the reefs and corals around the island. In essence, the whole week was an amazing experience which we’ll never forget. Rex and Janika, all the best on your projects and see you soon!! Loved the pirate life!

I spent one of the best weeks of my life on Rex's island doing Advanced open water course. Rex is very open minded and positive person, who likes fun and you can trust him for 100%, I'm thankful for having such friend. If you want to have great time out of crowded places full of tourists and annoying traffic, don't miss Bayaca, the coolest and… read more maybe the last pirate island in the world!

We had such a great time with Rex and Janika, we think it was the best workaway we’ve ever done! The Island is beautiful and so relaxing, the reef around it is stunning and we’re so pleased we spent a day diving, thank you Janika! One of the best highlights was helping the baby turtles, would love to see them released in a couple months. Janika… read more and Rex were amazing hosts, sharing meals, drinks and stories was great. The whole team is extremely friendly and we loved the dogs and killer (the cat). The work is super relaxed and fun. We felt so welcome and comfortable and now consider them both good friends, can’t wait to come back and visit soon and see how the island is developing. Good luck Rex and Janika, can’t wait to see you both soon, and if you’re ever in the UK or Colombia, of course you are welcome for as long as you want!